Offender Management Statistics Quarterly, England and Wales, July to September 2016 (with prison population as at 31 December 2016)

Main points

The prison population has been relatively stable for the past five years. This differs to the increasing prison population trend that was observed between the 1950’s and early 2000’s (see Figure 1). Our most recent extracts indicate that there were:

- **84,307 prisoners in England and Wales as at 31 December 2016**

  - The total prison population has remained relatively stable with a slight decrease of less than 1% compared with the same point in the previous year.

- **35,842 admissions of which 21,732 were first receptions into prison in the latest quarter**

  - This is a decrease of 1% and 5% respectively on the previous quarter and a decrease of 7% and 5% respectively on the same quarter last year.

- **43,971 adjudication outcomes in the latest quarter**

  - This is an increase of 2% on the previous quarter. A total of 4,164 additional days were added to prisoner’s sentences.

- **262,388 offenders on probation as at 30 September 2016**

  - The number of offenders on probation at the end of September 2016 was 12% higher than same point in the previous year.

- **5,584 offenders recalled to prison in the latest quarter**

  - This is the first year-on-year decrease since the introduction of the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014; a reduction of 7% on the same quarter in 2015.

This publication gives offender management statistics for the latest date available and provides comparison with fixed points of time in the previous year. For full and detailed commentary which looks into longer term trends, please refer to the annual publication, published in July, and ‘The Story of the Prison Population:1993 - 2016’. For technical detail please refer to the accompanying guide, ‘Guide to offender management statistics’.

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1. Prison Population

The prison population stood at 84,307 on 31 December 2016.

The sentenced prison population stood at 73,588 (87%), the remand prison population stood at 9,251 (11%), and the non-criminal prison population stood at 1,468 (2%).

Figure 1: Prison population, 31 December 1996 to 2016 (Source: Table 1.1)

Remand

The remand population has been steadily decreasing in the past year leading up to 31 December 2016, falling by 1,528 (14%). This is consistent with the decreasing number of outstanding cases for the Crown Court (see Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly). The number of males remanded in custody fell by 15% (to 8,699) whilst the number of females increased by one person (to 552).

More than half of those remanded in custody were being held for either: Violence Against the Person (22% of those on remand), Theft Offences (16%) or Drug Offences (15%).

Sentenced

In line with the long term trend, the sentenced population has increased by 1% in the year leading up to 31 December 2016. Figure 1 shows that the total prison population has increased in line with the growth of the sentenced prison population.

In the year leading up to 31 December 2016, the number of prisoners serving a determinate sentence length of six months or less has decreased by 11% (to 3,618). The number of sentences of more than six months to less than 12 months has increased by 13% (to 2,336) and the number of sentences of four years or more has increased by 6% (to 31,474). The number of prisoners sentenced to 14 years or more has also increased by 10% (to 3,543).

Sex offenders

The rise in the long determinate sentenced population is in line with the increasing number of sentenced sex offenders. As at 31 December 2016 there were 13,052 prisoners serving sentences for sexual offences, representing 15% of the total prison population. The number of prisoners serving immediate custodial sentences for sexual offences is now at its highest level since at least 2002. This is consistent with the latest ONS ‘Crime in England and Wales’ bulletin which reports on the number of sexual offences recorded by the police in the year ending June 2016.

‘Violence Against the Person (VATP)’ and ‘Possession of Weapons’ offences

One in every four sentenced prisoners is in prison for a VATP offence. This proportion has remained unchanged for the past 12 months.

The number of those sentenced to a Possession of Weapons offence increased by 16% (to 2,227) compared to the same time last year. This substantial increase can be attributed to a range of factors, including more targeted police operations against knife crime. However this offence group only accounts for 3% of the prison population.

Extended Determinate Sentences (EDS)

EDSs were made available for courts to impose from 13 April 2015 and on 31 December 2016, 3,370 prisoners were serving such sentences; this is a 7% increase compared to the previous quarter and a 38% increase compared to the same time last year.

Indeterminate sentences

As at 31 December 2016, there were 11,021 (10,663 male; 358 female) indeterminate sentenced prisoners (those serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences and life sentences) in the prison population. This represents an annual decrease of 6%.

There were 3,683 IPP prisoners as at 31 December 2016 which represents a decrease of 14% in the last 12 months. This figure has fallen by 39% since the June 2012 peak of 6,080, however, the number of IPP prisoners who have been recalled to custody continues to increase; in the past year the recalled IPP population has increased by 33% (to 702).

The proportion of the IPP population who are post-tariff continues to increase, 84% of IPP prisoners are now post-tariff compared to 79% this time last year.

The number of life sentenced prisoners (7,338) has dropped slightly (by 1%) compared to 31 December 2015. There were 59 whole-life prisoners at the end of December 2016, with six additional life prisoners being treated in secure hospitals.

Recall to custody

The prison population who have been recalled to custody (6,570 prisoners) remained relatively stable over the year leading up to 31 December 2016 (up 1%). On this date, there were 986 prisoners recorded as being in custody following a recall under the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 (ORA); representing 15% of the total recall population.

Foreign National Offenders (FNOs)

There were 9,749 (1,652 remand, 6,706 sentenced and 1,391 non-criminal) foreign nationals held in custody and NOMS-operated Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs) as at 31 December 2016; representing almost 12% of the total prison population. The number of FNOs in the prison and NOMS IRC population has slightly decreased by 1% compared to 31 December 2015.

The most common nationalities after British Nationals in prisons are Polish (1.1% of the total prison population), Irish (0.9%), Romanian (0.8%), Albanian (0.7%) and Jamaican (0.6%). 2. Prison receptions and admissions

In total there were 35,842 admissions to custody in the latest quarter. 13,691 remand admissions, 16,838 sentenced admissions, 5,265 recall admissions and 48 civil non-criminal admissions.

21,732 offenders were received into custody as first receptions in the latest quarter. 11,202 remand first receptions, 10,486 sentenced first receptions and 44 civil non-criminal first receptions.

The number of first receptions remained broadly consistent when compared with the previous quarter, however there has been a 5% decrease in the number of first receptions compared with the same quarter in 2015.

There was a 13% decrease in the number of untried admissions (to 8,581), a 14% decrease in the number of convicted unsentenced admissions (to 5,110) and a 1% decrease in the number of sentenced admissions (to 16,838) compared with the same quarter in 2015.

Adult (aged 21+) and young adult (18-20 year olds) admissions have both decreased by 14% for remand admissions and 1% and 2% respectively for sentenced admissions, compared with the same quarter last year.

Half of all sentenced admissions during the quarter were for sentences of six months or less (8,005). This sentence length band has seen a 3% decrease in the number of admissions when compared with the same quarter last year. In contrast there have been increases in the number of admissions of offenders with determinate sentence lengths of greater than twelve months to less than four years (2%) and four years or more (7%), when compared with the same quarter last year.

By comparing this quarter with the corresponding quarter in 2015 it can be seen that sentenced admissions for Theft offences and Violence against the person decreased by 8% and 3% respectively, however, the number of sentenced admissions for Possession of Weapons has increased by 35%, from 585 to 790 admissions.

Former members of the Armed Forces

Former members of the Armed Forces accounted for 545 of the matched first receptions for the quarter. This accounts for approximately 4% of offenders who responded to the question asked, which has been at the same level of response for the four previous quarters.

3. Adjudications

There were 43,971 adjudication outcomes in the latest quarter 64% of these adjudications were proven.

More than one in three (37%) of proven adjudications were for offences of disobedience or disrespect; the number of proved disobedience offences increased by 2% on the previous quarter.

There were 4,164 additional days added as punishments for offences committed by prisoners in the quarter ending September 2016. The average number of punishments per offence was 1.72. This is broadly consistent with figures seen in the previous quarter. 4. Prison Releases

18,714 offenders were released from custody in the latest quarter. 18,465 releases from determinate sentences and 249 from indeterminate sentences.

Prison releases from custodial sentences

Whilst the total number of releases during the quarter ending September 2016 represents a 1% decrease compared to the same quarter in 2015, there was a 5% increase in the number of releases of offenders serving determinate sentences of four years or more.

There were 249 releases from indeterminate sentences between July and September 2016 – 141 IPP sentences and 108 from life sentences.

Releases on Home Detention Curfew (HDC)

2,253 offenders were released on HDC during the latest quarter.

Though the total number of HDC releases is virtually unchanged (a less than 1% decrease) compared to the same quarter in 2015, there has been a 20% rise in HDC releases for offenders serving sentences of six months or less.

Releases on Temporary Licence (ROTL)

There were 88,017 incidences of ROTL during the quarter ending September 2016, this is the highest number of ROTL incidences within a quarter since the start of 2015.

Compared to the quarter ending September 2015, the number of ROTL incidences increased by 17% for females and 8% for males. During the latest quarter there were 8,048 incidences of ROTL for females, this is the highest quarterly figure for more than two years.

The number of individuals given at least one incidence of ROTL between July and September 2016 was 3,879, which represents an increase of 10% since the same quarter of the previous year.

There were 69 recorded Temporary Release Failures (TRFs) between July and September 2016. This is 17 fewer than in the previous quarter, but 28 more than the same period the previous year. TRFs as a proportion of temporary release incidences remain at a low level, with approximately only 1 in every 1,250 incidences of temporary release resulting in a failure between July and September 2016.

Prisoner transfers

There were a total of 23,931 recorded incidences of prisoner transfer during the latest quarter. The majority of these (70%) were routine inter-prison transfers. Fewer than 400 (399; 2%) incidences of transfer were a result of overcrowding drafts.

19,186 prisoners had at least one incidence of transfer in quarter ending September 2016. 5. Probation

The total number of offenders on probation was 262,388 as 30 September 2016. This was a 12% increase in the total probation caseload (court orders and pre- and post-release supervision) compared with 30 September 2015.

Figure 2: Number of offenders under Probation Service supervision, 31 December 2006-2015 and 30 September 2016 (Source: Table 4.7)

The court order caseload rose by 11% between the quarters ending September 2015 and 2016, with the Community Order (CO) caseload increasing by 8% and the Suspended Sentence Order (SSO) caseload increasing by 16%. The number of offenders starting COs fell by 11% over this period, while the number of offenders starting SSOs with requirements fell by 4%.

There was a 15% increase in the caseload of offenders supervised before or after release from prison between the end of September 2015 and 2016, with offenders supervised on post release increasing by 36% alone. This is due to the introduction of the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 (ORA) on 1 February 2015 (see Figure 2).

Regarding the number of requirements started under court orders, there have been particular increases in the combination of the rehabilitation requirement with both the unpaid work and curfew requirements. There has also been a significant increase in the use of the electronic monitoring requirement.

Of the court orders terminated in the quarter ending September 2016, 72% of community orders were terminated successfully; for the supervision periods of suspended sentence orders, 69% were terminated successfully over this period. 6. Licence Recalls

The number of licence recalls between July and September 2016 was 5,584. This was 7% lower than in the same period in 2015 and is the first year-on-year decrease since the introduction of the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 (ORA).

In the period between July and September 2016, 5,512 offenders were recalled for breaching the conditions of their licence, representing a decrease of 7% compared with the same period in 2015. This is the first year-on-year decrease since the introduction of the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 (ORA) and in fact the first year-on-year decrease since April-June 2014, which was 3% lower than April-June 2013.

ORA expanded licence supervision so that anyone sentenced to more than a day in prison will receive at least 12 months supervision on release. This came into effect for those sentenced from 1st February 2015. As a result of this gradual implementation, recent year-on-year comparisons have compared periods in which all released offenders were subject to licence supervision with those in which only a proportion of offenders were. These year-on-year increases have reduced in size over time as a greater proportion of released offenders in the comparison period have been covered by ORA.

Between July and September 2016, there were 1,981 recalls of offenders released from a sentence of under 12 months, a 12% increase compared with the same period in 2015. This is the smallest year-on-year increase in ORA recalls, following the previous trend as an increasing proportion of released offenders were covered by ORA in the comparison period.

Since the introduction of ORA, the number of non-ORA recalls has been falling but this latest quarter is the first in which this fall has been greater than the corresponding increase in ORA recalls, leading to an overall decrease. There were 3,603 non-ORA recalls between July and September 2016, a 15% decrease compared with the same period in 2015.

The most common reason for offenders being recalled between July and September 2016 was for non-compliance, with 52% of recalls having non-compliance recorded as one of the reasons for recall. Further charges were recorded as a reason in 44% of licence recalls.

Between July and September 2016 there were 68 prisoners serving an IPP sentence and 36 offenders serving a life sentence who were re-released having previously been returned to custody for a breach of licence conditions.

Offenders not returned to custody

Of all those released on licence and recalled to custody due to breaching the conditions of their licence between April 1999 and September 2016, there were 1,486 who had not been returned to custody by the end of December 2016. A further 18 offenders had not been returned to custody as of 31 December 2016 after recall between 1984 and April 1999, meaning the total number of offenders not returned to custody at the end of December 2016 was 1,504. These figures include some offenders believed to be dead or living abroad but who have not been confirmed as dead or deported.

Of the 1,504 not returned to custody by 31 December 2016, 217 had originally been serving a prison sentence for violence against the person offences and a further 47 for sexual offences. Further information This publication presents quarterly data trends. For annual figures, and longer-term trends, please refer to our annual bulletin published in July each year.

Accompanying files As well as this bulletin, the following products are published as part of this release:

- A ‘Guide to Offender Management Statistics’, which provides comprehensive information about data sources and quality, as well as key legislative changes.
- A document outlining the ‘Users of Offender Management Statistics’
- A set of data tables, covering each section of this bulletin, including a prison population data tool.

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Contact Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice press office:

Tel: 020 3334 3536 Email: newsdesk@justice.gsi.gov.uk

Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to the Justice Statistics Analytical Services division of the Ministry of Justice:

Nick Mavron, Head of Prison, Probation, Reoffending and PbR Statistics Ministry of Justice, 7th Floor, 102 Petty France, London, SW1H 9AJ Email: statistics.enquiries@justice.gsi.gov.uk

Next update: 27 April 2017 URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly

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